Elections of Yore (to the tune of “Yesterday”) Yesterday, politics was just a game we’d play Now hostility is here to stay Oh, I believe in yesterday Suddenly, there’s an absence of civility There’s no common ground that I can see Oh, yesterday came suddenly Why we disagree I don’t …
Read More »
From the moment JD Vance came onto the national stage, he was inextricably linked to Donald Trump. As the author of the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was initially the Trump whisperer, explaining the Trump phenomenon and 2016 win to shocked liberals. Back then, Vance didn’t like Trump. He called …
Read More »
The first thing I thought of while watching Senator JD Vance of Ohio refuse to say whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election in a recent interview with this newspaper was “The Manchurian Candidate,” John Frankenheimer’s 1962 psychological thriller. The linchpin of “The Manchurian Candidate,” of course, is the …
Read More »
JD Vance keeps showing up. The Republican vice-presidential nominee and first-term senator from Ohio is talking to reporters at campaign rallies. He is scheduling network and cable interviews. And he is sitting down with The New York Times. Something has shifted in American politics when it is noteworthy that a …
Read More »
Two of the nation’s most-contested battleground states — Pennsylvania and Arizona — illustrate the difficulties each campaign faces in gaining a clear advantage in the final stretch of the 2024 race, with Kamala Harris maintaining a narrow lead in Pennsylvania but Donald J. Trump continuing to hold an advantage in …
Read More »
The biblical story of Esther, the Jewish orphan who became queen and bravely saved her people, has been a potent symbol for women and girls, a call to lead a life of courage, sacrifice and purpose. Sojourner Truth invoked Esther as she fought for women’s rights and civil rights. Hillary …
Read More »
Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, talked by Zoom on Wednesday afternoon with Chris Christie, who was the Republican governor of New Jersey when Hurricane Sandy hit that state in 2012, about the differences between the political climate then and the one surrounding the devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. …
Read More »
“The Apprentice,” a new movie that dramatizes the early years of Donald Trump’s career, ends with a scene between Mr. Trump and an actor who plays me. The year is 1986 and I’m interviewing Mr. Trump for the first time, to begin ghostwriting “The Art of the Deal,” a book …
Read More »
In 1978, I visited my first war zone, Beirut. There were, in fact, several wars going on. The Israelis had made an incursion in the south, but there was chaos everywhere, with various local militias squaring off in the streets. Two of them had battled each other for control of …
Read More »
Former President Donald J. Trump turned down Fox News’s invitation to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on the air this month. But the Republican nominee will appear on the network next week for an unusual televised town hall, fielding questions from an all-female audience. The event, announced by Fox News …
Read More »